


Braids and Bows

by Seaberry Siren (Lettrefeerie)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, Fear of Parting, Slice of Life, SoKai Week, SoKai Week 2020, Sora braiding Kairi's hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25210777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lettrefeerie/pseuds/Seaberry%20Siren
Summary: While Sora braids Kairi's hair, the two of them are reminded on some stations on the road they've already passed - and some that are still ahead of them, down the road.
Relationships: Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 12
Collections: SoKai Week 2020





	Braids and Bows

**Author's Note:**

> (Okay. So every time I say “Nah, I don’t have time for writing” I somehow manage to write something right after. Funny. Maybe I should say I don’t have time to write more often)  
> It's probably a bit late, but... Last-minute submission for SoKai Week 2020, I suppose? Today's prompt was Down the Road.
> 
> Thanks to my awesome beta reader theeeveetamer, who spontanously had a look at this piece and corrected all of my comma issues... Seriously, thank you for that!  
> Also, special thanks to OveliaGirlHadItRight for encouraging me to write another piece for SoKai Week :)

Kairi remembered when they were five and Sora asked her if he could do her hair. It had ended with many tears, Sora’s mother desperately trying to untangle the messy braid in her hair and Sora endlessly apologizing to her.

Nowadays, her hair was longer. It reached far beyond her shoulders and the tips were brighter than the rest, having been bleached by the sunlight over time.

Also, Sora had definitely gotten much better at doing her hair. He usually took his time brushing it carefully, contrary to back then, when he had been pretty careless. And his braids weren’t messy anymore either.

“Aren’t you done yet?” Kairi remarked after a while. “You’re taking a bit longer than usual today.” Not that she would complain about it. She loved when Sora played with her hair in the morning. But what was taking him so long on this day?

“I know,” Sora replied, and Kairi swore she could hear his beaming smile. “I just… I like touching your hair, you know? It’s so incredibly soft.”

She giggled. “So you’re looking for an excuse to touch my hair now?” A shame she couldn’t watch him blush, since he was standing behind her. Kairi found it incredibly cute when Sora got flustered. “Yours is too though.” One would suspect that wasn’t the case, given the spiky mess that it was. How many times had she had her hands in there by now? She had stopped counting – no, had never been counting in the first place.

Silence fell between the two, a few moments of awkwardness. A reminder on how new all of this was and how unreal it could feel at times. Finally being together again, waking up next to each other nearly every single morning, and more often than not, getting ready for the day together.

“Where did you learn to do this anyways?”

“Anna taught me how to do it,” Sora replied as he gathered a few strands of her hair from the top of her head, and started to make a French braid.

“Not Rapunzel?”

“Nope.” She felt him take another strand of hair and weave it into the braid. “I mean, she braided her hair once, but I wasn’t there to see it. And now, she’s got short hair, so there isn’t much to braid anymore.”

“Oh.” She’ never witnessed Rapunzel’s incredibly long hair for herself, only heard stories about it. By the time Kairi had finally gotten to know her and Eugene, her hair had already been cut short. “Well… I guess that makes sense.”

“Anna was very enthusiastic about it too,” Sora continued as he took another strand of hair and put it into the braid. “She got so exited when I asked her that she practically bounced around the entire castle singing something about it being ‘perfect SoKai shipping material’, if I remember correctly.” Whatever that was supposed to mean. “Can I put a ribbon into your hair?”

“Well, I don’t know if you can,” Kairi replied chuckling. “But you’re welcome to try.”

“Alright!” Sora finished up the braid and tied it with the ribbon he had asked her about earlier. He had only done a few sections, and only half the way down. The majority of her hair was left to hang loose down her back.

“You know, I remember when you tried to put a ribbon into my hair as some sort of payback when we were five.”

Kairi laughed as she nodded. Yes, she remembered that too. Especially the part where Sora had worn the ribbon with pride, despite Riku claiming that he looked like a girl, something that had surprised even Kairi herself back then. “Did you really never mind it?”

“Nah,” Sora responded. “I had to make up for that braid somehow. Besides, who decided that bows are only for girls anyways?”

“Well, I think it looked good on you,” Kairi teased.

Sora responded with a chuckle. “It could have looked worse. I have to say though, it was a pain to get out. I think it’s one of the only times Momma was really, really frustrated.”

“Oh. I’m sorry about that.” He had never told her this part. Given how much of crybabies both of them had been when it came to their hair as kids, Sora had probably shed just as much tears as she had when Elín (1) had tried to undo the messy braid.

“It’s fine. Dad made ice cream for all of us afterwards.” She noticed that he was now merely running his hands through the loose strands.

Kairi laid her head back. Sora was staring at some point in the distance, likely reminiscing some fond memories. She swallowed. “Sorry. I didn’t want to touch the subject… You still miss your Dad, don’t you?”

Sora’s father had died when he was ten. Up until then, his family and childhood had both been pretty happy, not perfect for sure, but undoubtedly a good time for him. But at that point in his life, it had been taken away from him all of a sudden, and despite Elín’s best efforts, he seemed to have had a hard time grieving. Therefore, his father’s death was one of the few things Kairi was always hesitant to touch on when talking to him, given the fact that Sora’s entire world had been torn apart on a single day.

“I never even got the chance to say goodbye,” Sora murmured. “But even if I did… I’ll always miss him, Kairi. Isn’t it only natural to miss your loved ones when they’re not around?” He was leaning forward now, looking into her eyes. He supported himself on the back of the chair Kairi was sitting on. “After all… I miss you too when you’re not around, you know?”

She did. “I miss you too when you’re not around.” Kairi sighed. “And I guess… You doing my hair is another thing I’m going to miss, when next we part ways.”

Silence fell between the two of them. For a brief moment, it all just seemed too perfect to her. Sora was here, she was here, they were here together, enjoying a moment of peace. Fear tugged at her heart for a short moment, and she was terrified that they might be ripped apart from each other again, sooner or later.

“Will you still do my hair after the next universal crisis?”, Kairi asked quietly. She immediately regretted that question – the mood was already a little stiff, and she wanted to enjoy every single moment with him. And on the other hand… She just didn’t want to lose him. Never again.

Sora sighed. One of his hands let go of the chair’s back and moved to her cheek instead. Kairi instinctively laid one of her hands on his as he started rubbing her cheek with his thumb.

She wanted to hold onto him, for as long as she could.

“Kairi, no matter what happens… No matter where the road leads us… Our ways will always cross again at some point. I just know it.”

Maybe it was inevitable that they would part ways again. The next conflict was already looming at the horizon, and once it arrived they would have to separate again. Hopefully it would only be temporary, just like the last time.

But until then…

“We’ll walk down this road together,” Kairi whispered as she gripped Sora’s hand just a little bit tighter. “It’s a promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t want Sora to make the classic “I’ll always come back to you”-promise here. It implies that Kairi doesn’t play a role in their ways crossing again, and I think that is just not true anymore. I think both of them will always find a way back to each other again, no matter what.  
> Also, Sora doing Kairi’s hair is probably one of my favorite headcanons for the two of them.
> 
> (1) Elín: The name I came up with for Sora’s mother. It’s the Icelandish form of Helena. I kinda had this idea that maybe, not all of the Destiny Islands have a tropical climate. So I chose this name for her because I somehow thought she is from some less tropical part of the Destiny Islands, maybe a place like an island in the Baltic Sea - or like Iceland.
> 
> Anyways. Thank you for reading this and maybe, read you next time!


End file.
